Gaseous nitrogen losses from rice plant tissues may be closely related to nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), the research on which may provide a theoretical supplement in nitrogen nutrition and a technical parameter for higher NUE genotype screening. Pot experiments under solution culture with four nitrogen concentrations of 0, 20, 40, and 80 mg N L^-1 respectively, were carried out to assess the correlation between ammonia volatilization rate (AVR) from booting stage to milking stage and NUE of different rice varieties including higher NUE type of Yangdao 6 and BG34-8, lower NUE type of Wuyujing 3 and Zhenshan 97B. The results showed that the peak AVR of Yangdao 6 and Wuyujing 3 was 11.0 and 10.4 mg N h^-1 pot^-1 respectively at panicle initiation stage, the peak AVR of BG34-8 and Zhenshan 97B was 22.5 and 23.4 mg N h^-1 pot^-1 respectively at booting stage. The AVR increased with the nitrogen concentration increasing in the culture solutions for a given genotype, the range of increase was larger in lower-NUE varieties Zhenshan 97B and Wuyujing 3 than in higher-NUE varieties Yangdao 6 and BG34-8. There were significantly negative correlations between AVR and aboveground nitrogen accumulation (r = -0.6768^**), NUE in grain production (r= -0.6158^*), fertilizer-N agronomic efficiency (r = -0.6667^**), and fertilizer-N physiological efficiency (r= -0.8353^**), when all the tested genotypes were cultured in higher nitrogen concentration of solution (80 mg N L^-1). The general conclusion of the research is that there are significant genotypic differences in AVR, and the higher-NUE genotypes have lower AVR than the lower-NUE genotypes. Hence, lower AVR under higher nitrogen concentration of culture could be an effective parameter for higher-NUE genotype screening.